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Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

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Re: Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

#51

Post by abakker »

hugja wrote: post #46
seanalltogether wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What made vanilla special was the restrictions placed on the world. Everybody packed into Ironforge or Orgrimmar because that's where the auction houses were. You could chat with tons of people or easily join groups to raid dungeons. Physicality in the world was an important part of the experience. You hung out at the gates of a battleground to play in them, so there was usually a crowd to chat with. When BC came alo…

Although I didn't play Vanilla, as I said above. I've experienced this with the end of Wotlk and beginning of Cata. The introduction to group finder and the ability queue from anywhere for anything really ruined that experience. This caused the game's world to feel empty at least for me anyways.

Yep. That’s definitely when I stopped being interested in playing as much. I wasn’t even that social a player (I was never in a guild), but I loved the feeling that I was in a virtual world full of people.

That crowd in the city, coupled with the worse trace options- back when mounts were for higher level players and were very expensive - made the actual quests feel a lot more remote.

Special mention to the griffins/hippogirffs. One of the greatest moments of joy I felt when I got on one the first time and could still look around as it flew.

Re: Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

#52

Post by tinco »

abakker wrote: post #49
wingerlang wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never played WOW in its heyday, but literally most of my friends did. I've been considering checking WOW out without reading any guides - as I think 'optimal play' makes games boring. So there might at least one 'new' player.

Do it, there’s really very little to lose, and a lot to gain.

Said no one about WoW ever. Not disputing the fact that it was arguably the best game ever created and I did thoroughly enjoy it, but damn have lots of people lost so much playing WoW.

Re: Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

#53

Post by Merem »

feefie wrote: post #44

The one thing that I suspect will be missing is new players. One of the things I enjoyed the most was seeing in chat a player that didn't know how to get from Iron Forge to catch a boat to the other continent, and I'd have fun showing him how to get through the Wetlands to the port. The Wetlands was a higher level than we were at the time the quests wanted us to visit the other continent, so it was a dangerous journe…

Coming from someone who played Vanilla WoW (and also WoW in general) for the first time last year on a popular private server: Everyone always expects you to know everything, so one has to mention it quite often, especially when it comes to dungeons where the party decides to go for route X to farm possible loot item Y and you have no idea what they are going to do/break. I still had a lot of fun getting my character to level 60 though (and raising some others). Open world PvP is particularly great.

Re: Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

#54

Post by tapoxi »

tinco wrote: post #52
abakker wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do it, there’s really very little to lose, and a lot to gain.

Said no one about WoW ever. Not disputing the fact that it was arguably the best game ever created and I did thoroughly enjoy it, but damn have lots of people lost so much playing WoW.

I think that's what I enjoy so much about Classic - there's a finite amount of content there. I can hit endgame on my own schedule without worrying about the goalposts being moved by the next expansion.

Re: Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

#55

Post by arkades »

hugja wrote: post #10
vcfg wrote: post #2

I like wotlk better, I think it was the best expansion, and I’m sure wotlk servers have more players than vanilla servers now. I don’t know why they chose vanilla over wotlk. :/

This was my first thought too. Although I must admit I didn't play WoW until the release of BC (Burning Crusade) and stopped when Cata finished. So I never really got to experience what was special about Vanilla. More specifically for why I'd want WOTLK is for Arena. The last season was the most balanced that I ever experienced it and some of the most fun I've ever had playing WoW or any game in general. Jumping back…

> . I remember playing BC and had a blast trying to complete quest. You had to really pay attention and read the quest for specifics and clues to figure out what was needed or where to go.

I remember that experience of discovery. It only lasted as long as it was all ... undiscovered. I don’t think it’ll work for a repeat performance.

Re: Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

#56

Post by tmpz22 »

tinco wrote: post #52
abakker wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do it, there’s really very little to lose, and a lot to gain.

Said no one about WoW ever. Not disputing the fact that it was arguably the best game ever created and I did thoroughly enjoy it, but damn have lots of people lost so much playing WoW.

I thoroughly wish I had invested the 10,000+ hours I've spent on games like WOW in my social life and general well being. It wouldn't have been a 1:1 translation, some time would have been wasted regardless... but I feel like I'd be happier and an all around better person.

Re: Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

#57

Post by frebord »

highace wrote: post #18
Vanit wrote: post #5

I'm really interested to see where this leads. They got some quick wins out of this, but they're going to need to somehow revert a lot of game systems to get it back to something approximating the vanilla experience.

Here's my prediction: if you didn't play vanilla when it was available, you're gonna hate it. If you did play it, you'll go back for the nostalgia but will stop when you realise how tough the grind was. Those players will be late 20s and beyond now and won't have the time for it. It'll be interesting to see how many of those calling for this to happen actually stick around.

Spending months (literal days worth of time) leveling, and then entire evenings raiding is just not something I have time for now.

On the other hand I have to imagine I would play a lot more efficiently/smarter than when I was 16.

Re: Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

#58

Post by seattle_spring »

I still don't understand why they didn't go with either Diablo or Diablo 2. Much easier to make compatible with modern settings, much easier for new and casual players to get into, much easier to maintain, and arguably more people hungry to play it online over legacy WoW players.

Re: Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

#59

Post by charlesdm »

seattle_spring wrote: post #58

I still don't understand why they didn't go with either Diablo or Diablo 2. Much easier to make compatible with modern settings, much easier for new and casual players to get into, much easier to maintain, and arguably more people hungry to play it online over legacy WoW players.

And likely much less profitable as well

Re: Dev Watercooler: World of Warcraft Classic

#60

Post by kemayo »

taneq wrote: post #14

It's interesting to see them relating the trouble they've had with the old game client when thousands of us play on private servers using old game clients (1.12 is common for much the same reasons discussed.)

I suspect that their standards are different.

Someone who's willing to jump through the hoops to play classic WoW on a private server likely has a willingness to deal with glitches and troubleshooting issues with running a 12-14 year old game client.

Whereas Blizzard wants to provide a smooth official experience, which they're going to give to their mass market audience. They can't get away with saying "yeah, it crashes a lot, and runs terribly on New Video Card X, deal with it", because it makes them look bad.

(For that matter, I suspect things like saying "that crash bug was there in 2007 as well, so it's the authentic experience" wouldn't go over fantastically...)

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